Hoffman sets major league record with 479th save

Hoffman recorded his major league-record 479th career save after
Clay Hensley pitched six outstanding innings, as the San Diego
Padres completed a three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates
with their second consecutive 2-1 victory.

Russell Branyan and Josh Bard hit solo homers for the Padres
(83-72), who closed out their home season with 10 wins in their
last 11 games to move two games ahead of Los Angeles in the
National League West Division.

"It's going to be a dogfight," Hoffman said of the playoff
chase. "That's the beauty of this individual moment being kind
of pushed aside and the pennant race taking the forefront.
Ultimately, our goal is to get to the postseason, and that takes
precedence."

Entering to his personal theme song "Hell's Bells," Hoffman
struck out the first two hitters in the ninth. After pinch
hitter Freddy Sanchez grounded out, allowing the righthanded
closer to surpass Lee Smith in the record books, a wild
celebration ensued at the mound. The 38-year-old received a hug
from every member of the team and then addressed the crowd of
41,392.

"It's overwhelming, to be totally honest with you," Hoffman said
in the locker room. "It becomes a very humbling experience.
It's hard to put into words what it truly feels like. Knowing
that it was the last game at home, and wanting to do it here for
a number of reasons, that definitely added to it."

However, Hoffman's celebration could not have taken place
without the third outstanding start by a Padres starter. After
Chris Young carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning in the
series opener and Jake Peavy struck out 11 in eight dominant
innings Saturday, Hensley (11-11) set a career high with nine
strikeouts.

"My main focus was to just keep the game as close as possible
and try to get the ball to (Hoffman)," Hensley said. "I'm happy
about (the strikeouts), but I'm not really a big strikeout
pitcher, so whenever anything like that happens for me, it's
just kind of like icing on the cake."

The righthander yielded just a run and seven hits and did not
walk a batter. He shut down the Pirates after three
first-inning singles produced a run to win his third consecutive
start.

"I didn't think he had his best stuff, but he was effectively
wild today," Padres manager Bruce Bochy said. "He got it done.
He's just done a great job. We needed it, because we had a
tough time getting runs in, and he came through for us."

Cla Meredith continued his outstanding relief work with two
scoreless frames, setting the stage for Hoffman, who notched his
NL-leading 43rd save and 27th all-time against Pittsburgh.

"It's a special day when you get a big win like this and Trevor
reaches his milestone," Bochy said. "I caught myself reflecting
back on all of the times he's been out there, and he's been out
there a lot. The crowd was tremendous, and it was just a great
day."

Branyan hit a monstrous homer, his fifth since joining the club
from Tampa Bay, in the fourth inning off Pittsburgh starter
Marty McLeary. The blast was estimated at 453 feet, tying
Andruw Jones of the Atlanta Braves for the longest home run ever
ever at Petco Park. Jones struck his on July 15.

Bard set a career high with his ninth blast in the sixth off
Juan Perez (0-1) that gave San Diego a 2-1 lead.

"These are all big games, and tight ballgames the last couple,"
Bochy said. " We had chances to have big innings, but they got
away from us. We got the two big home runs, but we kept it
close for (Hoffman)."

McLeary allowed a run and four hits in five innings.

"Marty McLeary threw great today," Pirates manager Jim Tracy
said. "To pitch the five innings that he did, and 70 some-odd
pitches, and he's had a couple of relief appearances during the
course of this month, I'd say that's an admirable job."

Pittsburgh dropped to 1-5 against San Diego on the year, and
scored just four runs in suffering the series sweep.

"We didn't swing the bats well all series, and it showed again
today," Pirates right fielder Xavier Nady said. "It's been tough
for us, but we get to go home now and hopefully we'll get
something going again as we get to the offseason."